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Click hereAbsolutely fearless, I walked out to the end of the high diving board and did a perfect simple jackknife. Although no one was there to see it, I knew it was flawless. Encourage, I did a couple more dives, and on the forth try I decide to try something hard."
Li rolled on her side to face me and I was shocked to see tears in her eyes. She looked right into my face but I could tell she wasn't seeing me at all, her was at that pool all those years ago. She continued.
"The moment I went airborne I knew I was in trouble. Totally out of control, the left side of my head and left shoulder smacked the front edge of the board." Li laughed. "At the moment, not concerned at all for my safety, I remember thinking how glad I was that no one was around to see my total fuck up of the move. I hit the water on my left side, the entry deafening and painful, I think I might have blacked out from the pain in my head and shoulder. Somehow I made it to the edge of the pool, got out, went to the locker room. A group of college age swimmers had just shone up and they called 911."
Li went quiet, her eyes met mine, she was in the room with me again, the tears had stopped but she still looked upset. She seem to be struggling to say the next part. Finally she said, "I've never told anyone this part. As far as I knew, I was the only one in the place, but when I hit the water, there was someone in the pool. I mean already in the pool underwater even before I dived." Her brow furrowed as she struggled with the memory. "But that was impossible there was noway anyone could have gotten into the pool with out me seeing."
Li went quiet again so I said softly, "Maybe she jumped in after you hit the water?"
Li shook her head. "She was far below me, she couldn't have gotten where she was so fast by just jumping in ... and she was naked, Asian and the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. She swam up to me and guided me to the edge of the pool. I must have blacked out for the next thing I remember, I was laying on my side at the foot of my locker covered in a towel looking up at the college girls. My injuries were minor, light concussion, bruised shoulder. After that day, I quit swimming and became a diver. Unfortunately, my mom took over and squeezed all the joy out of that too." She rolled on her back and looked at the ceiling again. "I know that my naked savior was just an hallucination brought about by pain and shock but ... " She rolled to look at me again. "To this day, every time I hit the water I expected to see her. And for a long time that was the only reason I kept at it. Then about a year ago I stopped expecting her to show up. That's when I knew I was done with diving. With this stupid porn thing I plan to destroy my old life, making it impossible for me to return to it. The Olympic comity will distance itself, my sponsors will run for cover and maybe my family will let me be." Li laughed, Phelps' stupid little bong incident will be nothing in comparison."
A huge awkward silence descended and went on forever. Eventually Li asked, "Any dark confessions on your side?"
I did have them but wasn't comfortable sharing them with her for I gone back to believing she was crazy. Out of the blue I said, "I found something that belongs to you." Li frowned as I swung my legs off the bed, left the room and returned with the net float. "I found this on a beach a couple of months ago. I think it was meant for you." I spun the barnacle encrusted glass ball in my hands. "The symbol for Li, the Chinese goddess of the sea is embossed in the glass."
Li took the glass ball reverently. After turning the thing in her hands she said, "Marry me."
"Yeah right," I said with a laugh. But her beautiful brown eyes said it all, the chick wasn't joking. "Oh my god. Li—" She cut me off.
"Ever since Meka's pool thing I haven't been able to get you out of mind. Seeing you under water that night was the closest I've EVER got to my near death vision."
"Li—"
"We can go to San Francisco tonight or Vermont or better yet Paris. I'll sign anything you want no prenuptial. I have lots of money, I own properties it'd all be yours."
"Li!" I shouted to quiet her. Then I whispered, "Li...I can't marry you." She smiled but I could see the hurt beneath it. I felt bad and a little scared for her proposal proved she was a little whacked.
She covered her face and spoke through her hands, "I've ruined the evening. It's my impulsive nature my shrink tells me."
"You see a shrink? I asked relieved that she was seeing one.
"Yeah, but I've never told her about my pool ... " she said picking up the net float looking at it sadly then finished her sentence, " ... Goddess." She looked at me and her expression broke my heart but I kept quiet. "I have a plane to catch," she said.
I put on a hotel robe and helped gather her things as she dressed. The last thing she put away was the the strap on dildo. She gave me a soft kiss on the cheek and was gone.
- COMMENTS
Wandering_Minstrel6 months agoThis 16th part of Naked Portraits was posted more than seven years ago. In addition, the 'information' file for the multi-part story indicates that, to date, author has not closed out the story to further development. Since I finished reading this last part, I have spent far too much time scouring the net for evidence concerning this story and its author. I have attempted to track down the mysterious EagelWolf, look for any signs that "Naked Portraits" was continued on another site, or even track down clues in the "meta-story" surrounding the story. So far, however, i have found no clues as to the fate of the author or their rather haunting story.
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Aside from the extreme problems with spelling (for example: as far as I can determine 'where', 'were', and 'we're', all have the spelling, 'were'), Naked Portraits is a well ploted, if meandering, story with very good character development. As I read the story, at various points was certain that the author must be a woman, but shortly after would find myself convinced the author was a man. That demonstrated to me the skill of the author in identifying with and understanding the characters of each gender in the story.
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I especially enjoyed the "meta-story", as it were, that followed the fictional "development story" interwoven with the story itself. It is reminiscent of the use of this same device in "The Princess Bride". I remember that, after a determined but ultimately fruitless research effort on my part, my dad had to finally explain to me that S. Morgenstern was a lterary device. A few months after that, we adopted a puppy and I actually named the poor thing S. Morgenstern in honor of the character from the book. When we took the puppy to the Vet for her first visit, there was sooo much confusion about just exactly what the initial 'S' stood for. (heh) I felt quite vindicated as they were all much older and therefore more wise than I.
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So in the end, there is no evidence as to the fate of the mysterious EagelWolf (is the misspelling of Eagle accidental or intentional) nor what the author had in mind for the characters in the story. My personal theory is that the author got too close to some truth and was sacrificed to an erupting volcano during their trip to Hawaii. (heh) A more likely, although more mundane, theory is that EagelWolf's startup had an unexpectedly successful IPO and the resulting "fame and fortune" ended the author's fledgling literary excursion.
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Whatever the truth may be, it seems that EagelWolf and "Naked Portraits" will remain just another abandoned storyline authored by an unknown individual whose fate will remain forever unknown after an unexpected detour into a place we call...
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The Twilight Zone
